Book Image

Learn T-SQL Querying - Second Edition

By : Pedro Lopes, Pam Lahoud
Book Image

Learn T-SQL Querying - Second Edition

By: Pedro Lopes, Pam Lahoud

Overview of this book

Data professionals seeking to excel in Transact-SQL (T-SQL) for Microsoft SQL Server and Azure SQL Database often lack comprehensive resources. This updated second edition of Learn T-SQL Querying focuses on indexing queries and crafting elegant T-SQL code, catering to all data professionals seeking mastery in modern SQL Server versions and Azure SQL Database. Starting with query processing fundamentals, this book lays a solid foundation for writing performant T-SQL queries. You’ll explore the mechanics of the Query Optimizer and Query Execution Plans, learning how to analyze execution plans for insights into current performance and scalability. Through dynamic management views (DMVs) and dynamic management functions (DMFs), you’ll build diagnostic queries. This book thoroughly covers indexing for T-SQL performance and provides insights into SQL Server’s built-in tools for expedited resolution of query performance and scalability issues. Further, hands-on examples will guide you through implementing features such as avoiding UDF pitfalls, understanding predicate SARGability, Query Store, and Query Tuning Assistant. By the end of this book, you‘ll have developed the ability to identify query performance bottlenecks, recognize anti-patterns, and skillfully avoid such pitfalls.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
1
Part 1: Query Processing Fundamentals
4
Part 2: Dos and Don’ts of T-SQL
9
Part 3: Assembling Our Query Troubleshooting Toolbox

Activity Monitor gets new life

Live Query Statistics (LQS) has a viable use case, as we discussed in the Using Live Query Statistics section of this chapter: a previously identified long-running query. But what if we haven’t identified an offending query yet? What if we are the database professional that got that middle-of-the-night call asking us to solve an issue with a business-critical ETL process that runs every night, but is unusually slow today?

Note

ETL is an acronym for Extract-Transform-Load, which is the name given to a process that extracts data from a data source, enacts transformations in that data such as aggregations or calculations, and loads the result into a destination such as a database. A typical example of an ETL process is a SQL Server Agent job that schedules the execution of a SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) package.

That is where Activity Monitor (AM) comes in. AM is an SSMS feature that’s been there for a long time and has probably...